I'll Take My Chances
by Guardian of a Friend
Summary: He had said their meeting had a one-in-six billion chance in occurring. What he didn't know was that they met in every time line only under different circumstances. In which Yui and Hinata find each other in a million different ways.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter I: Monday You Can Fall Apart**

The first day he saw her was on a Tuesday. She made a rather large scene yelling at one of the attendants at the subway station-honestly he wasn't sure if there was anyone present that day who didn't notice her.

Soon after that she quickly became one of the regulars, just another face in a sea of people. He saw her every day at the station, on his way to and from the baseball mound.

It was a Wednesday when he noticed the routine she had for the color of her outfits. It vaguely reminded him of an anime character his best friend had showed him- the Depression of Haruhi or something. Mondays were yellow, Tuesdays blue, Thursdays red, Fridays black. And today, a Wednesday, she wore pink. Not like the kind that matched her bubblegum pink hair or her cotton-candy eyes. No. The brightest most obnoxious shade of hot pink he wasn't even aware could exist in fabric.

And he could only grudgingly admit that it suited her-in a weird punk rock sort-of-way.

He learns her name on a Thursday.

This is the first time he's ever seen her with someone else, and, rather surprisingly, it was one of his friends from high school last year. Her name is Yui and he thinks while watching them talk like old friends that they look like sisters.

(He also recalls Masami had formed a band last year and wonders if how they met had anything to do with that.)

It was also on a Thursday when they first made eye contact. Upon seeing him she grinned, her eyes closed and head tilted to the side. He wants to think that maybe she's been noticing him as much as he has her.

But he knows that's impossible since his eyes have never left her since that Tuesday nearly a month ago.

Without thinking about it he smiles back and is struck with the realization that the action is familiar and fills him with a wave of nostalgia that he can't quite explain.

Their first conversation occurs the next day, on a Friday. He realizes that they go to the same school although she's a year younger which explained why their paths' never crossed.

He mentions an upcoming baseball tournament when she asks about his sports bag and she promises to come if he'll get her tickets to the next school concert. (First years weren't allowed to come on their own.) He replies that he never asked her to come but reluctantly agrees and finds himself genuinely excited for the next few weeks.

On Saturday she accidently slips and calls him Hideki instead of Hinata and he can't decide why he's blushing as much as he is or where the sudden happiness came from.

He doesn't ride the subway on Sundays. Without baseball practice or school, he has no reason to excuse himself. After a few weeks his mom asks him why he keeps doing a double take every time a short girl with pink hair walks by.

He tells her it's nothing and walks out of the grocery store slouching and grumbling to himself.

(He wonders if he's becoming attached to her.)

It's the Monday of the tournament and he's running unusually late. He shrugged his baseball gear off his shoulder the night before upon returning home and couldn't find it in the morning. His breathing is labored by the time he reaches the platform and he scans the crowd for Yui as he hears the train drawing near in the distance.

Spotting her, he begins to push his way through the crowd and opens his mouth to get her attention. The words die in his throat. Before he knows what he's doing he's shoving people out of the way to get to her.

She's standing near the edge of the platform. _Too close_, he thinks not bothering to apologize as he pushes past someone else. _Too far, _his brain tells him instead. Too far from him.

He's almost made it to the front when he watches in horror as someone innocently bumps into her from behind with enough force to push her in front of the incoming train.

Hideki's the only one screaming.

It was on a Monday when he watched Yui die.

(He gets the feeling he had promised to catch her, years ago.)


	2. Chapter 2

**Technology hates me. That's all I have to say on the matter.**

**Anyways, very different writing style for this chapter (my goal is to not only make each chapter an AU but also to have its own writing style. The best way to describe this would be to say short and fluffy. Like a bunny. The cover image is of forget-me-nots. I thought it fitting. **

**To all of you who reviewed, I can't describe the smile it put on my face and am even considering going back and revising just for you guys (what's the point of receiving useful criticism if you ignore it?) . Hopefully this chapter will flow better just because it's in my more natural style and I promise to be more careful with my ever-changing tenses. (You have no idea how long this issue has plagued me. My mind just doesn't work in a linear fashion.) **

**Enjoy a bunny and some popcorn.**

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><p><strong><span>Chapter II: Popcorn and Promises<span>**

"I dunno man,_ Better Off Dead _is pretty amazing."

"Sure it is. I just don't want to watch it two weeks in a row." Hinata fumbled with the DVD cases in his hands, trying to read each one without putting them down. One still ends up clattering to the floor. "You know, if we get really desperate-as in, rip our eyes out of our skulls desperate- we could ask your sister for a suggestion. Her taste sucks but at least bad movies are better than no movies."

Leaning down and picking up the case Hinata had dropped and flipping it over, Otonashi groaned, "No way in hell are we asking Yui to pick out a movie for us. We've got like a fifty-fifty chance between slasher or chick flick, and I'm not in the mood for either." He shoved the fallen DVD into Hinata's hands. "Here, let's go with good old _Transformers. _You can never go wrong with explosions and giant robots. Also, you're paying."

"...Fine."

Two beat-up bikes were haphazardly thrown into the grass in front of the Otonashi household as their respective owners raced inside, each with a separate bag on their arm. Shouting a quick, "I'm home!" over his shoulder, Otonashi headed upstairs, leaving Hinata hunched over and panting in the door way.

"At least tell me you remembered the fee for spending the night here." Hinata rolled his eyes at quick-tempered girl resting on the couch, her head dangling off the edge of the chair and her feet sticking up in the air. _At least she had the forethought to wear shorts today,_ he thought, embarrassed by the memory.

Walking up to her, he dropped the bag filled with candy onto her stomach and grinned at the 'oof' that followed. "Here ya are Miss Troll, try not to get cavity. Or worse... fat!" Ducking, the bag of sweets hurled right over his head and he took off for the stairs laughing, climbing them two at a time. The string of expletives Yui was shouting at him all the while only made him laugh harder, and he burst into his best friends bedroom clutching his sides.

Otonashi closed the door behind him and waited for Hinata to catch his breath before starting the movie. The room grew darker as the sunlight faded outside, the laptop screen becoming the only source of light.

_ 2:05 A.M. _Flipping his phone shut, Hinata carefully crawled his way out of the sleeping bag and out of the room, before descending the stairs. He cautiously took each step, making sure to take the path down he had memorized years ago to prevent the stairs from creaking. He swore the walls in the household were thinner than paper and both of Otonashi's parents as well as himself had crashed hours ago-the last thing he wanted was to wake them up.

When he finally made it downstairs, he was greeted by the sight of Yui lounging on the couch, her head lulling to the side as she fought to stay awake. Ending credits rolled on the flat screen TV, the soft music accompanying them drifting across the room. Nudging her head, he plopped down on the couch and reached for the remote. His thumb lazily pressed the button to change the output to TV instead of the CD player.

He instantly regretted that decision.

On the screen was a brightly colored, poorly animated show on Disney Jr. and the remote to change channels was nowhere to be scene. He didn't have the energy to go look for it. "You have got to be _shitting _me, Yui. Who watches this at sixteen?"

"You do apparently," she snickered, her face half-hidden in the pillow she'd wedged between them so she could still lay down. He groaned, but relaxed into the sofa anyways, content with blaming her later for any brain damage this show caused and too tired to bicker. "The usual bet I'm guessing?"

"Yup." He'd be damned if he let himself fall asleep before her. One, because he didn't trust her to carry him back upstairs quietly _or _carefully without waking the rest of the household. And two, because there was no way she would get the satisfaction of seeing him making breakfast for them in the morning. She would probably find something even more demeaning to call him than housewife -his usual go to- if he lost.

ADHD don't fail him now.

A little after the clock above the TV struck four, Hinata was aware of added pressure against his arm and smiled in victory. Lightly tapping her cheek with his index finger to confirm the win, he fist-bumped the air. He would be exhausted the next morning, but it was totally worth it he assured himself. Just like it was every week.

With a yawn, he stood up, gently supporting Yui's head from beneath the pillow to keep her from waking up. As quickly as possible, he wrapped his arms under her knees and shoulders and lifted her bridle style before slowly hobbling to the stairs. With far less caution than he originally used, Hinata climbed the stairs, occasionally shifting Yui in his arms so he wouldn't drop her.

By the time he laid her into her bed, his arms were sore and his legs felt like they were about to give out beneath him, but she still didn't wake. It always felt odd to see her asleep- fragile, helpless, _dependent_. Every romance book he'd ever read always said girls were the most beautiful when they slept; he had to disagree. Yui looked positively... _un _-Yui and it didn't suit her.

Of course, her being in a moment of weakness didn't stop him from drawing on her face in the multitude of colored sharpies on her desk. Or from setting her alarm for 6:00 A.M. that morning.

Glancing back at her from the door, he couldn't help but think she looked just a little bit more like herself-absolutely ridiculous and perfect for it.

Both he and Otonashi would be awoken by a shriek at a few minutes past six, and after watching Hinata burst out laughing, Otonashi decided he didn't want to know and hid under the covers.

When Hinata went downstairs for the breakfast that was for him and him alone, he couldn't help but chuckle at the faint but still visible red mustache and purple circles on her face. He also didn't pass up the opportunity to tease her about being _'such a housewife'._

He would never admit to her that he always saw her bubblegum pink eyes light up when he called her a housewife, even if her frown deepened to hide it. And he would never admit that he intentionally sleep deprived himself for the sole purpose of seeing them do so.

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><p><strong>I'll update when I update.<strong>

**I'm dying from the bunnies. Somebody save me.**


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